The article says “Of course the number is off the charts in Sweden,” and sure enough, a whopping 48% of Swedes are using some sort of music subscription service. But I couldn’t understand why the article said “of course”, as if it was supposed to be self-evident to me that Sweden would lead the world in streaming music.

As your typical xenophobic US citizen, I revered Sweden as a clean, pacifist, rich and equal society full of well-cultured, well-educated citizens. But I wondered, why are their music fans so evolved?

My first stop was the Swedish popular music Wikipedia page. With a population of around 9.5 million (just a million over New York City), its hits-per-capita has been through the roof since the 70s. ABBA, Europe, Roxette, Neneh Cherry, Rednex (OK, could have done without that one), Robyn, Basshunter, Nina Persson, The Cardigans, Ace of Base, The Soundtrack of Our Lives, Avicii, Meshuggah, In Flames, Opeth… the quantity is matched by diversity. This isn’t even to mention Swedish producers like Denniz Pop and Max Martin who have written some of the biggest hits for U.S. artists in the past couple decades.

Is it something in the cool, crisp, refreshing Swedish mountain spring water?

Well, it was time to hit the offical Sweden Wikipedia page. I quickly found some more clues:

About 85% of the population live in urban areas.

Sweden has the world’s eighth highest per capita income.

The country is ranked as the second most competitive in the world by the World Economic Forum.

Sweden is one of the world’s most equal countries in terms of income.

Money and urban living certainly add up to heavy music consumption, but let’s dig deeper into the Music subhead:

Sweden has a prominent choral music tradition, deriving in part from the cultural importance of Swedish folk songs. In fact, out of a population of 9.5 million, it is estimated that five to size hundred thousand people sing in choirs.

Wow, so 15% of Sweden’s population sings in a choir. What do 15% of American citizens do?

“The first time the Knife got money from the Swedish Arts Council was in 2001… The electro-pop duo received 45,000 Swedish kronor (SEK), or about $6,327 — ‘pretty standard for albums back then'”

Wait, what? The Swedish government gave an eletro-pop band $6K to record an album? Can you imagine what Southern Republicans would say if the Bush administration gave Gwar $6K?

Reading down the article, one quickly realizes Pitchfork was just pulling a hipster fake out on you, and there really isn’t anything wrong with Sweden. Everything looks right.

Sure, it takes a tax rate around 50% of GDP (it’s closer to 28% in the US), but it adds up to tens of millions of dollars in arts and music funding. We’ve got the National Endowment for the Arts, but try getting a grant out of them for your electro-pop band.

Could it be that simple? Could Sweden’s secret be public funding of the arts?

22 Comments

the article you read said “of course” because most people know that Spotify is Swedish and was started there. That’s why Sweden is so stream friendly. And not sure why the US would give Peaches money because she is Canadian and lives in Germany.

A ha, that explains a lot. Not sure “most people” know Spotify is from Sweden, maybe insiders do. I certainly should have. And good point, I guess Peaches was a bad pick. Was just the most funky widely-known artist I could pick off the top of my head. Should have gone with… I don’t know… Gwar?

In Sweden the success of Swedish popular music is often ascribed to local music schools funded by the municipalities. Some information from the Swedish Council of Schools for Music and the Arts homepage (http://www.smok.se/in-english):

• In the 290 municipalities in Sweden there are 125 music schools and 153 arts schools.
• Twelve municipalities have no music school
• The local government rules the activity. No national regulation or laws rule the activities.
• 363 000 children/youths will be reached by the local music and arts schools every week.
• The fee per semester is in average 642 SEK (64 €)
• The schools have about 5.000 teachers.
• 62 % girls, 38 % boys

Love this comment. Our US culture has forgotten that human evolution has hard-wired us for music, dance and art. We get caught up in worrying how music will pay the bills because our society doesn’t support the arts the way we ought. Meanwhile all the best art comes from people who aren’t thinking about money at the time of creation, and then get grossly exploited because they’re desperate to make a living.

The thing is that Sweden is not just successfull in music. Sweden is successfull in everything!

It’s the same in sports, technology, military, you name it.

So, it does not come down to if we have public funding, or music schools, long winters, or what ever. It comes down to that there is no country on earth were you have this level of economic freedom.

What do I mean with that? You have the highest taxes in the world?

Yes, that’s true, but taxes does not impact as much as regulations do. We have very few regulations when it comes to starting companies, and that’s the key of our success. There is no country on earth where it’s easier to start a company than Sweden.

The idea is that the swedish people should be as free as possible to start as many companies as possible. To create as much wealth as possible, and then the government tax the shit out of it to collect a lot of money.

In other countries you are not even allowed to start a company as easy, since you need licenses and other stuff.

Since we are a very small country we are very export oriented. That’s the whole idea behind our business model, to export as much stuff as possible.

Interesting. Would you say Sweden has a stronger culture of entrepreneurship than other countries?

I happen to think our music situation would be much better here in America if we had more a stronger culture of entrepreneurship. Our government is failing to encourage small business, in many ways because of the corruption caused by corporate influence on American politics.

We are ranked as one of the leading countries in the world when it comes to innovations. There are many indexes that rank the most innovative countries and we always come out in the top five of those rankings.

But actually I would argue that Sweden is the most innovative of all countries and the reason for this is because there is no country that have so many international big companies, if you calculate by capita.

Another thing, there is a reason why the Nobel Price comes from Sweden… 😉

But remember the core reason why we are so successfull is because as I said it’s very easy to start a company, because the regulations are very few. It’s not that we are smarter then anyone else, it’s just that we get the opportunity to do some work.

The main reason why there are poor countries is because they are not allowed to start companies. There is to much regulations. In Africa, you must wait many years even before you get your licens to start a company and in most cases you will never get a license at all.

So, basically you could say that it’s illegal for most people to work in poor countries, and that’s why they are poor! The only way to become successfull and have a higher standard of living is by working. If you’re not allowed to work you will not be able to improve your standard of living. Go figure… 😉

Anyway back to Sweden. You can look it up and you will see what I told you, that we are successfull in everything (calculated by capita).

You know, I’m very interested in national economics and discovered that Sweden was successfull in so many areas. Then after a while I started to do a lot of thinking and gathering of information and the above is the conclution that dawned on me.

No offense taken, I think many Americans acknowledge our country is totally insane. The sad thing is most feel powerless to do anything about it, and retire to conveniently private lives of leisure paid for by jobs they resent having to do for other people.

From what I’m hearing from you and your Swedish peers, it’s not just that you have the policies in place to encourage entrepreneurship — you have the culture too. My #1 goal with this blog and my other projects is to foster a culture of entrepreneurship among musicians.

I like this Steve Jobs quote: “You need a lot of passion for what you’re doing because it’s so hard. Without passion, any rational person would give up.”

From what I keep hearing, you Swedes are raised to have a passion for entrepreneurship, and get lots of support during all the difficult moments of failure that must be endured to succeed.

In the U.S., Salt Lake City in Utah is known for its large Mormon population, and the Mormons are known for their strong culture of entrepreneurship. It’s arguably the world’s most capitalistic religion. This culture of entrepreneurship is based on certain ideals that have all but vanished in the general American landscape: financial preparedness, saving money, self-reliance, honesty, celebration of hard work, etc. We need to bring those back into the national culture. If you go to Salt Lake City, it’s like stepping into an earlier time in America where these ideals were still celebrated — after all, it’s what built America’s now-crumbling wealth and power. Everybody is hustling and busy, there’s an uncommon focus and drive radiating from people’s eyes, and — most importantly — booming businesses on every block.

As a musician, I can think of no greater challenge (and need) than to bring those values to musicians. It’s going to take nothing short of a religious conversion, because those values are anathema to U.S. musicians… there is an art/business divide that is vast. But I’m up for the challenge.

Sounds like I need to come to Sweden and see what’s going on for myself! One day…

Well, I would say that Sweden is better than the US at the moment, but far from good. We had a lot more entrepreneurship in the past.

I think all countries had that, but in the western world it has shrinked a lot during the second half of the 20th century.

I’m actually a liberterian myself, which is pretty rare for a Swede to be, but I belive in small government and few regulations. The reason for this is because if you have a big government it will spread like a cancer and hijack the economy. This is what has happened in the western world, and that’s also the reason for the finacial crisis.

Anyway, the thing is that it’s affecting entrepreneurship within all areas, even music.

Personally I think that you guys are starting to wake up. I mean Ron Paul has been very popular in recent years. Maybe your not ready for the libertarians to take over yet, but in 10-20 years it might be a reality.

When that happenes America will go back to it’s old vaules, which created the most prosperous country the world had ever seen. At one point in time you guys actually had 90 % of all the gold in the world. No other country could even compare with your standard of living at that point in time (19th century).

You were so successfull so people from all over the world immigrated to your country. Also, the saying the “land of the free” was actually true at that point in time. Now it’s just a myth of what once were.

Well, if you want to come here som day you are more then welcome, we have a good music scene and a lot of hot girls! … 😉

Well, you know, the thing is that you first need the polices before you can get a culture.

If you are not allowed or encourage to do something, then there will be no culture. I think that’s the most important thing.

As an example, you had that statistic that Swedes sing a lot in choirs. I think the reason for that doesn’t come from religon. Because sweden is actually the most atiest country on earth. Also, people in Sweden are very active in Sports, and other things.

So it’s not that we are good at only one thing, it all comes back to what I said earlier, it’s very easy to start a company here. What I mean with that is all kinds of groups where people wants to join together, not just companies.

So, we are talking about companies, unions, associations, clubs, maybe even insurances, etc.

So, first it must be allowed to participate in groups like that. Therafter it will be encourtage automatically, and after a while a culture will develop.

I think this is where Sweden has it strength, we are very open minded, and this is reflecting our success. We are allowed to join music associations, companies, and nobody is laughing at us. We are allowed to fail as well as succeed.

But maybe my first statement was wrong, maybe this is the culture that we already have, our open mindness! … 😉

In America, our citizens feel subjugated by corporations. At the very least we feel powerless to stop them from doing things that damage the greater good in pursuit of profit — particularly when our own paychecks are dependent on their ethically bankrupt but financially fruitful endeavors.

It sounds like in Sweden there is a bit more of a “we’re all in this together” attitude between citizens and corporate culture (although I’m sure you have your exploitation and abuses too).

One thing Sweden has is more income equality, although I read your country has been dropping in those ranks lately (along with the rest of the world). I would imagine that contributes to a healthier attitude about participation in business vs. the American trade-off of being virtually enslaved by corporations in exchange for a comfortable, pleasurable but ultimately unfulfilling life.

Because of our “conveniently private” lifestyles, Americans are the opposite of open-minded. We curate our own culture, listen to what we want to hear, and violently reject all viewpoints that contradict ours. We live awash in propaganda of our own choosing, numb to reality but tuned in to reality TV.

It sounds like Sweden has more of a culture that encourages group formation of all kinds — from incorporation in a business to the camaraderie of a choir. The Internet helps us connect like never before, but maintains that convenient privacy that encourages complacency.

Cultures and policies are chicken-and-egg, it’s hard to say which comes first — they feed off each other. In America, “policy” usually means a government-granted business advantage to a corporation that funded the election of a politician.

As far as politics go, I’m probably closer to a Libertarian than a Democrat or Republican, though I don’t identify with any political party.

ABBA is a very good example of our open mindness culture. They where the first non english speaking group to become superstars.

They were open minded to succeed at singing english even though it wasn’t their native tounge. Actually they even made a whole record in spanish! And a couple of songs in german, french and of course swedish. I mean, which superstar group has ever done that?

And just for the record, our second most famous group, Roxette also relased a whole album in spanish. And let me tell you, spainsh is very far from swedish.

Yeahh, it’s a little bit sad, actually. I think you guys havn’t had the need to be open minded, since you have always survived due to your size. You have survied since you have such a big internal market within your country.

Sweden has not been able to do that (since we are so small), we need to be innovative to have a high standard of living.

Hehe, I like your chicken and egg comment, that was exactly what I realized when I wrote it! Glad that you understood what I was trying to say.

More blood has been shed, more suffering wrought in the name of religion and faith than anything else. Faith can be a powerful tool for positive change, but just like many things, power and money corrupt its best intentions.